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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26276185">A Series of Unfortunate Miscalculations</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seastar_Constellation/pseuds/Seastar_Constellation'>Seastar_Constellation</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Piece</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Cancer, Character Death, Death, Depression, Leukemia, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, References to Depression</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:14:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,561</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26276185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seastar_Constellation/pseuds/Seastar_Constellation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A ton of angst, no happy ending. Please be advised that this will hurt. Law cannot handle miscalculations.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Trafalgar D. Water Law x Monkey D. Luffy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Series of Unfortunate Miscalculations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>        Law’s life never really meant much until he happened to come into contact with the human incarnation of sunshine. He always wanted to make a move, say something cool, get his attention, but one thing stopped him. A disease that frightened all who heard its name, Leukemia. Law went through various bouts of chemo, took too many pills to count, and lost his hair over and over again trying to beat the monster that took away all of his energy and excitement. Some days he could barely lift his head while others he couldn’t even open his eyes. He could barely keep up with his friends, let alone actually date or have a crush on someone. Too many unpredictable variables that could cause him to stumble and die sooner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  
  <span>The teen never felt the need to be overly happy or excited about living. All he could see from his hospital windows seemed to be visions of a misty and dull life. He couldn’t play like everyone else. He couldn’t run or even just enjoy the sun outside like everyone else. He needed to calculate everything about his day, or the consequences could be dire given his situation. He lived his days monotonous and on a schedule, just waiting for death to finally consume him. Any error or miscalculation could ruin his entire week. Law hated miscalculations.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        In order to continue on, Law decided that he needed to rationalize his situation. Death could not be avoided, it came for everyone. No exceptions. He never understood why the ones who wanted to survive, who fought hard, always seemed to die around him. He did not see himself as a fighter, just as someone death looked over. He only knew this kind of thinking. His diagnosis came at the tender age of five years old and he lived by schedules ever since. Now at eighteen, he remained, the only one of his former hospital mates still around to receive treatments.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        New names and faces filled the hospital as he entered for his next treatment. The past severe amounts of chemo seemed to work better at destroying the cancer cells within him. The doctors sounded confident that he would go into remission this time around and stay that way, though the chance still remained his cancer would return. He wouldn’t get his hopes up. It cost too much energy. Apparently, he gained weight and didn’t look so gaunt. His friends played with his hair that grew over the past few months, a sign that his recovery began. He did notice he slowly gained more energy, day by day he could do a little more each time and not collapse into a huffing and panting fit. He couldn’t let himself get his hopes up, but it felt nice to have an appetite again, though there would always be foods he gained aversions to thanks to his puking fits. Bread. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        He couldn’t stand bread.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        The first miscalculation came when he met Luffy for the first time. This occurred when he came in for one of his check-ups and the poor teen seemed to be laughing it up with a broken arm. The arm looked as if it hung by a thread in the opposite direction of what it should. It baffled Law how someone could still be laughing with such a severe injury, it made him gag. Too much energy. He needed to look away before he passed out from his energy being sucked away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Luffy, being Luffy, tried to start up multiple conversations with the people around as he waited to be seen by a doctor. They all turned away or ignored him and that kind of made Law feel bad, so he turned around and started up a conversation. This made Luffy’s day, he could tell, and that made him smile, genuinely smile. The smile did not come anywhere near the size of the happy-go-lucky teen’s mega watt grin, whom Law assumed never fell ill a day in his life, but it still graced his face. This smile seemed far easier than the others he needed to force. Through some strange magic, truly it seemed to be magic, they exchanged numbers and off went the sunshine boy to get that awful break taken care of. Law headed back soon after, a bit more chipper than when he arrived.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        His friends teased him once he told the story, a small smile dancing on his features, and they congratulated him on making a real-life human connection. From that day on, Luffy and Law would text every day, almost non-stop, even if they could not see one another. The days became filled with magic and possibilities and Law started to feel far more hopeful than he could ever remember being. The second miscalculation? That he could experience true happiness without consequence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        As Law became better and better, he could go out more and more until his doctors finally declared him officially cancer free. He rang the bell in the hall of the hospital as hard as he could, and tears flowed. He never felt so happy to have permission to leave and do whatever he wanted. His first act as a cancer free individual? He asked Luffy out on a date to the movies. He couldn’t do huge romantic gestures, but the sunshine kid never seemed to mind. Luffy accepted his offer and their first date came the next Saturday.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        They loaded up on candy, popcorn, and drinks. Law brought some from home, as did Luffy, and he paid for whatever craving the other felt at the moment. It seemed that Luffy’s arm healed for the most part, and of course Law got to hear the entire story from the horse’s mouth. Luffy’s brothers, Sabo and Ace, dared him to surf down the stairs of their home on a mattress. Luffy is no chicken and accepted the dare on the condition that he received ten whole dollars and a burrito of his choice. He got both the ten dollars and his favorite burrito two days after the doctors reset his arm and put pins in it. Now, a cool scar decorated his arm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        The horror film they chose to see promised to be the scariest film of the summer. It lied. It lied so much that Law and Luffy ended up making fun of the cheesy and predictable plot lines throughout the entire film. Quite a few patrons did not like this, but none of them said anything. Their first date completed, Law walked Luffy home and kissed him on his front porch, receiving death glares from the brothers within.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        “So this is what normal feels like?” Law asked himself as he walked home, rubbing the back of his neck. “I think I could get used to this.” And he did.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Summer turned to fall, fall to winter, winter to spring, and spring back to summer. Law’s hair became shaggy and he accumulated tattoos now that the process wouldn’t cause severe trauma that could send him to the hospital. His relationship felt stronger than ever and life seemed perfect. He forgot he ever held the destructive disease in his body. It took years for the other shoe to drop and the second miscalculation to appear. Law gazed at the ring in the shop, now twenty-seven, almost a decade healthy, and his nose began to bleed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Appointments came quickly as the doctors rushed to make sure that the devil of a disease did not return. What they found could be categorized as aggressive and just like that, Law went numb. He stumbled his way home, replying to Luffy’s message that everything at the doctor’s went fine and the results would not be in for a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        He lied.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        This first lie that Law never wanted to say and never wanted to go farther only spiraled and grew into a tangled web. He did not want Luffy to know his cancer returned. He did not want his sunshine to find out. He pushed himself to be happy and pushed himself to be active, but he stopped replying to texts. He miscalculated. He could not lie for much longer. His hair began falling out again, he became gaunt, and the ring he bought sat unused in a drawer by his bed. He wanted nothing more than to put that ring on Luffy’s finger and marry him and live.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Damn it. He wanted to live.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        He fought this time. He tried his best and he even imagined some soldiers in his body, fighting off this thing so he could go back to being happy. This exercise never appealed to Law before, but now he would try everything to stay in the light that his sunshine provided, even if that meant not telling his sunshine about the bad. He begged his friends and family not to say a word to his boyfriend about his illness, no matter how much the man begged and pleaded of them. It obviously ripped them both apart, especially as the chemo once again took its effects and Law could not keep up his energy to go out and be with Luffy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        The days began to run together, and he puked more than he could keep down. He couldn’t keep this secret. He’d ghosted Luffy as a result and now he isolated himself all alone, in his room, curled up and crying silently so no one could hear. He couldn’t stop thinking about Luffy and found the energy to write a letter, which he put with the ring box and wrote that it belonged to Luffy. He would never get to see Luffy open that box, he knew that now, but he could leave it and hope that his older brother’s would not hide it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Law did not believe he deserved anything other than misery. His fourth, and final, miscalculation: Luffy, and everyone, would be happier without him after all the pain he caused them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Law soon needed to be admitted to the hospital and he asked, once again, that no one tell Luffy or his friends. He knew that this time there would be no coming back. All the fighting he did in the months prior left him with no energy to continue. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t think. His body refused to listen to him and, eventually, he stopped getting visitors. His parents, always busy, his friends and the love of his life didn’t know he needed to be admitted. The only thoughts that danced through his mind nowadays talked about how tired he became. Surely Luffy and his friends would be better off never seeing him in such a state. He wasted away to just skin and bones because he couldn’t eat. His hair fell out and even his tattoos looked dull. He never should have allowed himself to get his hopes up. He never should have talked to Luffy that day-.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        No.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        He would never regret having Luffy as his companion for eight wonderful years. He lived so much in that short amount of time just being with Luffy than he did in the nineteen years of life with his illness. He could die happy. Law thought he understood now, why the happy ones all died before he did. The happiness they experienced allowed them to live properly and now that he experienced the same thing, his time came.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Law died with a smile on his face, alone in the hospital on April 3</span>
  <span>rd</span>
  <span> at 11:30pm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Luffy never understood why he could not drag any answers out of the people that surrounded Law. His parents ignored all attempts at communication and Law’s friends all changed the subject. He felt upset and angry and tried to just move on. Law knew that Luffy preferred direct communication about problems, so why did he just drop off the face of the earth? Luffy went through all of their texts and listened to all of their messages. He came up empty over and over again. His days turned grey as he searched for answers to the question of Law’s disappearance. Months passed and still absolutely nothing, until April 4</span>
  <span>th</span>
  <span> at 1am.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        He received a call from one of Law’s closest friends and of course he answered. Luffy now did not go to sleep until about 2am most nights. He didn’t expect to hear a sobbing Penguin on the phone, trying his best to breathe properly. The words all came out jumbled and hurried and nothing seemed to be able to calm the older man down. “What do you want? Do you know how late it is, Penguin?” He managed to ask before one word came out clear: “Law…” Luffy froze in place and he did not know if he wanted to continue this conversation, but it seemed important.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        “Law is dead, Luffy… His cancer came back…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        This couldn’t be right. Luffy did not hear that right, did he? He laughed humorlessly into the phone. “That joke isn’t funny, Penguin… Y- You can’t just call someone and-.” He stopped as he heard the choked sobs of others, Sachi for sure and Cora. Luffy’s reality came crashing down. This numb feeling that washed over Luffy became the new reality. He stopped hearing things and the tears poured down his cheeks. Ace and Sabo walked in at that moment and took the phone from Luffy to listen to what Penguin needed to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Shit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        The days blurred together and nothing held bright colors anymore. Luffy’s face did not hold any emotion as plans for the funeral of the love of his life passed for the approval of friends and family. He received an invitation to the funeral, which seemed so very wrong. He couldn’t touch it or look at it. The day of, he could barely walk, and everyone could tell he didn’t want to talk. People told stories and laughed and cried and Luffy sat still. He couldn’t move. He stayed by the graveside for hours, reading the name on the tombstone: Trafalgar D. Water Law.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        Luffy’s brothers placed him in grief counselling because they couldn’t get him to do anything. An assignment required that Luffy dive into his feelings to try and stir something up within himself by drawing a picture or writing a poem about how he felt. He tried and he came up with a short kind-of poem. It read:</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        “I think I knew it was getting bad when I started to do everything sitting down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        And I think I understood it was getting bad when a smile became much more difficult to produce than a frown.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        When the room didn’t light up whenever I was around; when the tears came silently not creating any sound.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        And I think I knew it was bad when my own internal clock stopped ticking;</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        When the itching for joy became my new favorite pass-time;</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        When a laugh with friends cost much more than a dime,</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        It was more like an act that I put on with a grinning mouth that isn’t even mine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        And I think I knew it was getting bad when the fog came back,</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        The crows flew away and the dark started to attack.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>        And when I began to wonder if I’ll ever get my permanent smile back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Credit to Ethan Jewell on Spotify for this spoken word poem. I could not find the title.)</span>
</p>
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